President Mahmoud Abbas speaks during a ceremony marking the eighth anniversary of the death of late leader Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah November 11, 2012. (Reuters/Mohamad Torokman)

RAMALLAH (Reuters) -- President Mahmoud Abbas told President Barack Obama on Sunday he was intent on pressing ahead with a Palestinian bid for United Nations recognition as a non-member state, despite the US leader's objections.

Abbas explained his decision to Obama in a phone conversation, according to Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rudaineh. Continued defiance of Washington on such a sensitive issue casts further doubt on the chances for any renewed US-led Israeli-Palestinian peace drive following Obama's re-election on Tuesday.

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority on Wednesday circulated a draft resolution to UN member states that calls for upgrading its UN status to that of observer state, despite objections by the United States and Israel.

"President Abbas cited the reasons and motives for the Palestinian decision to seek non-member statehood as continued Israeli settlement activity and the continued attacks on Palestinians and their property," Abu Rudaineh said.

The White House said Obama, responding to a message from Abbas congratulating him on his re-election, used the call to reiterate "opposition to unilateral efforts at the United Nations."

The Palestinians are currently considered an observer "entity" at the United Nations.

Frustrated that their bid for full UN membership last year failed amid US opposition in the UN Security Council, Palestinians have launched a watered-down bid for recognition as a non-member state, similar to the Vatican's UN status.

The proposal, which could be put to a vote in the General Assembly later this month, would implicitly recognize Palestinian statehood and could also grant access to bodies such as the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where they could file complaints against Israel.

The upgrade seems certain to win approval in any vote in the 193-nation General Assembly, which is composed mostly of post-colonial states historically sympathetic to the Palestinians.

Palestinian diplomats also are courting European countries to further burnish their case.

Abu Rudaineh told Ma'an that Abbas will tour Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Monday in order to garner more support for the upgrade, before visiting Switzerland on Wednesday.

Israel and the United States say Palestinian statehood must be achieved by negotiation and have called on Abbas to return to peace talks that collapsed in 2010 over Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

"In his discussion with President Abbas, President Obama reaffirmed his commitment to Middle East peace and his strong support for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians with the objective of two states living side by side in peace and security," the White House said.

Obama pledged to make Middle East peacemaking a top priority when he took office in 2008 but on-again-off-again US diplomacy yielded no tangible progress.

With Washington focused on the West's nuclear standoff with Iran and seeking to avert any unilateral Israeli attack on its nuclear sites, the White House has shown no real appetite for any immediate new Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative.

Netanyahu spoke to Obama earlier

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has had strained relations with Obama and now faces a Jan. 22 general election in Israel, spoke to the US president by phone on Thursday and congratulated him on his re-election.

This comes after amid a flare-up of violence in the region. Israel said it was poised to escalate attacks on the Gaza Strip on Sunday following a surge of rocket and mortar salvoes by Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

The Palestinians seek to establish a state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip - which is controlled by Hamas who are bitter rivals of the Palestinian Authority - and want East Jerusalem as its capital.

Abbas has billed the UN move as a last-ditch attempt to advance long-stalled talks to achieve statehood by first having the world recognize Palestine as a state under Israeli occupation and its borders.

But US officials have warned that the UN bid is counterproductive and will make it harder for the two sides to agree to renewed negotiations.

On Saturday, Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz threatened to stop collecting tax revenues for the Palestinian Authority and not hand over any money if Abbas continued to seek UN observer state membership.

The aid-dependent Palestinian economy in the West Bank faces financial crisis due to a drop in aid from Western backers and wealthy Gulf states, as well as Israeli restrictions on trade.

Ma'an staff contributed to this report

1 ) r cummings / UK

12/11/2012 09:59

Go for it Abbas. The US stance is that you must reach agreement with Israel but everyone knows that's impossible while the crazies in Israel want to dictate victor's terms where they get everything they could dream of and the Palestinians get stuffed again. How the US can encourage a second Sudetenland like this, where an armed aggressor demands large slices of a neighbouring state to appease its nationalist, land-grabbing appetite, is beyond belief and reflects very badly on the USA.

2 ) Daniel / USA

12/11/2012 10:19

The draft GA resolution will lead to problems at the ICC. If Palestine becomes an ICC member, the Court will have jurisdiction over acts occurring on Palestinian territory. The draft resolution refers to the territory "on the basis of the pre-1967 borders, with delineation of borders to be determined in final status negotiations". Leaving Palestinian territory undefined allows the ICC to decline to investigate the settlements, which are on land outside of Palestinian effective control.

3 ) mohamed / somalia

12/11/2012 10:28

god with you ya abbas

4 ) Jordan / Palestine

13/11/2012 03:54

Daniel - there should be no problem at all w/the ICC. All they have to do is point to the dozen or so UN Security Council Resolutions declaring settlements illegal and the issue will be settled. In other words, regardless of where the settlements are - they will not be considered legal within the 67 borders under the fourth geneva convention.

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